Dimes' verdict on Northampton Cup clash

Sale Sharks director of rugby Steve Diamond backed his young charges to emerge all the stronger for Saturday's agonising Anglo-Welsh Cup loss to Northampton.

For the second week in succession a youthful Sharks side lost out in the last minute with the Saints claiming an 80th minute try to steal a 24-20 victory at the AJ Bell Stadium.

It was cruel on Sale who took the game to the visitors and showed a commendable willingness to attack throughout the game teenage fly-half Kieran Wilkinson and centre Luke James both catching the eye.

With Harlequins claiming a bonus-point win over Scarlets, it means Sale now can't qualify for the semi-finals.

But Dimes still believes there were plenty of reasons for optimism looking to the bigger picture.

"We were all obviously disappointed. We tried to play and I thought young Kieran Wilkinson, Cam Redpath and Luke James all did really well so there were some positives there," said Dimes.

"We probably should have won the game but I'm not too despondent. I thought we might have been able to keep them out at the end but we couldn't so fair play to them.

"Individually we were alright but as a team we weren't quite at the races I don't think. Northampton were a little bit more physical than us in the first half but after those two breakaway tries I thought we had got back into the game and had done enough to win it.

"But we could tell one or two of our players had had a week off as they were a bit ring rusty but we were in the opposition 22 and turned the ball over twice and conceded two tries so we've got to be better at our basics.

"Credit where it's due as they just managed to score in the final seconds.

"They rocked up here with their full-strength side so good luck to them - we'll just get ourselves ready for London Irish in the league."

While Northampton opted to field a powerful side shorn of just a handful of their leading players, the Sharks opted to offer more valuable experience to several of their promising young players.

And the Sale director of rugby believes all of his young charges emerged with great credit from what was a bruising encounter, not least 18-year-old Luke James who claimed a fine try and secured a second successive man-of-the-match award.

But Dimes also alluded that there would be changes to the squad for this Friday's final Anglo-Welsh group encounter away at Scarlets.

"Luke James is a good player just like his brother, Sam. He got the man-of-the-match award away in Toulouse last weekend too and he's doing everything we ask him to do," Dimes added.

"Young Kieran Wilkinson has a few things to learn but he didn't look out of place really.

"If you looked at our side, there were a number of 18-year-old playing a lot of minutes there. Kieran played the full 80 so we're not in a bad place.

"In terms of the Scarlets game, it's good that it's an away game given the three away games in the league that we've got coming up and we'll be going to Wales with pretty much our league team I think."